title: Anticipatory effects on anterior cruciate ligament loading during sidestep cutting.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A key to understanding potential anterior cruciate ligament injury mechanisms is to determine joint loading characteristics associated with an injury-causing event. However, direct measurement of anterior cruciate ligament loading during athletic tasks is invasive. Thus, previous research has been unable to study the association between neuromuscular variables and anterior cruciate ligament loading. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the influence of movement anticipation on anterior cruciate ligament loading using a musculoskeletal modeling approach.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty healthy recreationally active females were recruited to perform anticipated and unanticipated sidestep cutting. Three-dimensional kinematics and kinetics of the right leg were calculated. Muscle, joint and anterior cruciate ligament forces were then estimated using a musculoskeletal model. Dependent t-tests were conducted to investigate differences between the two cutting conditions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  ACL loading significantly increased during unanticipated sidestep cutting (p<0.05). This increase was primarily due to a significant increase in the sagittal plane ACL loading, which contributed 62% of the total loading. Frontal plane ACL loading contributed 26% and transverse plane ACL loading contributed 12%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results suggest that anterior cruciate ligament loading resulted from a multifaceted interaction of the sagittal plane shear forces (i.e., quadriceps, hamstrings, and tibiofemoral), as well as the frontal and transverse plane knee moments. Additionally, the results of this study confirm the hypothesis in the current literature that unanticipated movements such as sidestep cutting increase anterior cruciate ligament loading.
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Movement Sciences, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA 23529, USA. jweinhan@odu.edu
authors.forename: Joshua T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Weinhandl
authors.forename: Jennifer E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Earl-Boehm
authors.forename: Kyle T
authors.initials: KT
authors.lastname: Ebersole
authors.forename: Wendy E
authors.initials: WE
authors.lastname: Huddleston
authors.forename: Brian S R
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Armstrong
authors.forename: Kristian M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: O'Connor
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D016118:Anterior Cruciate Ligament / Q000502:physiology*; D059031:Anticipation, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D004576:Electromyography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007596:Joints / Q000502:physiology; D007717:Knee / Q000502:physiology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000502:physiology; D013177:Sports / Q000502:physiology; D016474:Weight-Bearing / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Injury; Knee; Musculoskeletal modeling; Simulation